Part I: Committees, Collegiality and the Classroom

Round-table discussion

Participants (by year of arrival at Amherst): Jane Taubman (1973), Susan Lewandowski (1974), Joan Dassin (1974), Kate Hartford (1974), Rachel Kitzinger (1974), Margie Waller (1974), Helene Scher (1975), Deborah Gewertz (1977), Laura Wexler (1977), Ruth Stark (1979). Moderator: Buffy Aries (1975).

1. Committees: What was your experience in serving on college committees, in administrative tasks for your department or program? Did you feel unfairly burdened by tokenism? Did you feel your voice was heard, your ideas acknowledged or accepted?

2. Collegiality: How well supported did you feel in your teaching, research, and other aspects of faculty life, including committee work? Did you have a mentor or mentors? To whom did you turn for advice and an understanding of the college’s many unwritten rules and customs?

3. The Classroom: How was your teaching style received by students, still largely male? Did students bring different assumptions to their evaluation of the competence of male and female faculty?